Retrospective
by HappyDuelist
Summary: Based on characters created by Minor Arcana, this one shot focuses on Seto Kaiba's son, Kouryo, who after an accident as a child is left paralyzed from the waist down. This is from his POV after being taken for rehabilitation at the hospital.


**Summary**: Based on characters created by Minor Arcana this one shot focuses on Seto Kaiba's son, Kouryo, who after an accident as a child is left paralyzed from the waist down. This is from his POV after being taken for rehabilitation at the hospital. A big thank you goes out to Minor Arcana for beta reading this fic and all her sagely advice. The fic this is based off, _Crystalline_, can be found on my favorites.

Yugioh One shot 

-o-

Kouryo watched his family leaving and felt his heart sink in his chest. What if he did bad here? He couldn't stand the idea of disappointing his father or his mother. They had high hopes that he would learn much from the therapists here who would help him try and stand again. However, Kouryo wasn't so sure. He knew his parents wanted what was best for him, so he sighed as he watched their retreating figures enter the elevator in the waiting room. This he could just barely see from his position in the hallway near his room.

A nurse walked by as Kouryo went back to his room and rolled around it. He had the full use of his arms, of course; it was his legs that he couldn't feel very well. Yet sometimes what he did feel would send shivers up his spine and fire down his legs. However it wasn't a constant annoyance. He was like his father in that he took pain rather much like anything else unpleasant, stoically. There was no other option for a Kaiba.

He had a roommate but the person, presumably another boy, was out somewhere. Probably at therapy, which he would be going to as soon as the therapist came for him. He'd been receiving therapy at home, they would come out to the mansion, but for the next couple of weeks this would be his home and his family had brought some things for him to try and make his stay here feel more comfortable.

Like his own clothing, much of which consisted of pressed trousers. He also had many polo-necked shirts that he could easily put on and take off himself. Yet when it came to his trousers and other personal things like underwear and socks, he required the assistance of an aide. He'd had one at home and was certain that he'd have one here, or that the nurses would be there to help him get changed.

Kouryo rolled over to the window and looked down. He was just in time to see the black limousine pulling away and knew that his family was inside it. It had to be just as hard on them to leave him alone as it was for him to watch them go away.

The young boy sighed and then turned around to find a tall dark-haired man standing in the doorway looking at him.

"Why hello there. You must be Kouryo Kaiba. I'm Randall, your Physical Therapist. Are you maybe up to taking a tour of the facility? We can start with a short session and evaluate your current physical situation."

Randall smiled as he took a few steps toward Kouryo.

"Sure, Randall. I'm ready whenever you are," said Kouryo, with a genuine smile.

Kouryo was relived to have someone there with him now and he rolled over to meet Randall, looking up at the man he would be working with over the coming weeks ahead. When Randall moved to take the handles of his chair, Kouryo let him push him out of the room and into the hallway. He listened as his therapist began to explain how things worked on the rehab floor, as it was known, and Kouryo remained quiet as Randall explained all the different activities they had and what they were for.

As they passed one room with tables, Randall explained it was where they would go to eat. If they didn't feel up to eating in the cafeteria, they could eat in their own rooms. Kouryo noticed all kinds of people as he was pushed through the halls. Old men with only one side of their bodies able to move, a couple of younger men like himself in wheelchairs, one of whom was an amputee missing his right leg above the knee. This man caught his attention, but Kouryo didn't stare at him. He understood all too well just how much it could hurt to be stared at by a perfect stranger.

There were some women here as well. One seemed to be paralyzed from the neck down but had enough movement in her hands to control a joystick for a power chair and she smiled at him and weakly raised a hand to wave as she sat in the recreation room. He waved back and returned the smile warmly. She looked like a really nice person and he wondered if they'd end up being friends. However, Kouryo found himself feeling rather shy. He was not good at making friends with complete strangers, he was more used to spending time with his brother.

Kouryo again remained quiet as his tour moved onto the one of the two therapy rooms. The other was in the basement of the facility and, so Randall had said, had all kinds of hydrotherapy equipment.

"And this here is the main therapy room. This is where all the hard work happens, Kouryo. I hope you're ready to work hard because you never know just what you're capable of until you try." Said Randall.

"I'm ready to work, Randall. You just tell me when to start and what to do and I'll do it," Kouryo replied firmly.

"Good, that's the right attitude to have. Let's go in and take a look around."

Randall pushed open the door and Kouryo rolled inside. His gloved hands gripped the wheels skillfully as he navigated his way past his therapist and into the room where five other PT's, as Physical Therapists were called, were working with other patients. One was walking with an artificial leg on some parallel bars. There were huge mirrors everywhere that went from the floor to the ceiling.

It was definitely not a place for someone who had a bad self-image to be, but Kouryo's self-esteem was in no danger of being injured by the mirrored walls. He'd inherited his mother's looks and so he merely looked around the room rather then focus on what he personally looked like at this moment. There were six platforms with thick mats on them and he could see therapy balls and all sorts of other equipment lying around.

From a treadmill and weight machines, to simple free weights and elastic therapy bands. He was familiar with all these items

Next, Kouryo followed Randall over to an empty platform. He couldn't make a transfer himself, so Randall had to help him move from his chair to the mat covered platform. He was sweating by the time he'd gotten settled onto the mat. Randall began by moving his legs gently.

"This is to see what kind of range of motion you have, Kouryo, so if something I am doing hurts you in anyway please let me know. We're partners in this, okay?" said Randall, moving Kouryo's right leg, holding the foot by the heel with one hand and under his knee with the other.

"It doesn't hurt at all. But if it does, I'll let you know," said Kouryo.

This went on for a while with the right leg, Randall making notes on a clipboard. When he'd finished with both legs he moved onto Kouryo's arms, pulling out a strange looking protractor type device. Apparantly, it was used to calculate the angle of mobility people had in their arms. Kouryo was glad to be able to assist in this part of the evaluation and so he was pleased when Randall told him his mobility was excellent.

"I have been getting therapy at home for a long time so I am sure a lot of the credit goes to her," Kouryo replied.

"I'm sure it does, but you are the one who does the hard work, after all, so don't forget to take some credit for your progress yourself. Now that we've done the evaluation would you like to use some weights and begin setting up a work out routine?"

Kouryo nodded and waited for Randall to go fetch a pair of free weights; he brought over five pound weights and set them on each side of Kouryo. Once done, he told him to pick them up and to lift them one at a time over his hea, and then to lower his arm behind his back. It was an exercise Kouryo was quite familiar with. He soon lost himself in the workout and didn't realize it was over until Randall came over in front of him, telling him to switch to bicep curls.

Much later, when he was in his room again, Kouryo found himself missing his family and thinking about trying to walk. He thought about the braces his parents had had made for him. From the ones that went up his legs to the one that encased his body up to his chest that was to help keep his body straight.

Kouryo sighed as he gazed up at the ceiling. He was lying in bed after having the nurse help him out of his clothes and into pajamas. He had talked to his brother already and was missing him right now.

It wasn't long before Kouryo's roommate fell asleep. He was an older man who'd been injured when sailing and was trying to get back some of what his accident had taken away from him. He had a positive attitude, so Kouryo thought from what he had seen earlier when they'd all eaten dinner. It was kind of like school or camp, if he thought about it, only there were other people way older then him that were patients in need of more care then he required. But his roommate, Jerry, wasn't one of them.

Kouryo sighed as he looked at the Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys card his father had given him, lost in thought as he remembered getting it for his birthday. He would do well in this place and try to get out of here as quickly as he could. To do so, he would make as much progress as he could while he was here. He knew his father would get him one of the special walkers that he'd seen in the therapy room, if it was something he could learn to use.

They had a lot of equipment at the mansion, some of which he never used and other pieces he used all the time. He wasn't sure if the braces and the walker would work for him, but Randall had told him that if it were meant to be that they would. Randall also said that only he could determine if it was worth it for him to put in the hard work that it would take to get up to walking again.

Kouryo could just barely remember what it was like and he wasn't sure he wanted to leave the safety of his chair.

As he drifted off to sleep, the brunette thought about the future and what surprises were in store for him. He'd seen the FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation) before and had been using one for some time, but he didn't think it was going to get him out of the chair. He knew Randall would be using FES with him in the morning and he needed his rest.

The last thing Kouryo thought about was his brother, Raiu. He fell asleep, wondering what they'd be doing back at home right now.

-o-

The next two weeks passed by rapidly with lots of therapy sessions, three a day to be exact. Using the walker, Kouryo had come to terms with the fact that he could walk if he used thebraces and the walker, but it wasn't what he wanted to do. For whatever reason, it felt more humiliating to be up with those braces on than what he'd look like being in his chair. It was no longer something he felt would be possible, so instead of letting it bother him he looked forward to going home.

Kouryo missed his family; his father worked, which was understandable, and his mother and brother could not come and visit him every night. It was only because of it being the holidays that they were recently both able to come and see him. It was a time when Kuro and Raiu could come visit him daily and stay at the mansion. His father had called a few times, but he'd always sounded like he had other more important things on his mind so Kouryo never kept him on the phone for too long.

Today, however, he was going home. This was a happy time for the young man because he knew he'd done well. He didn't know exactly when his family would come for him; they had been vague about the time for some reason. Kouryo figured it was because they had something special planned for his homecoming and he welcomed it. So as he sat there he was in high spirits. Everyone knew he was leaving today and he'd already had his morning therapy session so he was content to wait on his family.

He'd enjoyed being Jerry's roommate and he'd also enjoyed talking with the other patients here in the group. They all seemed like nice enough people, but he was glad to be leaving them and the rehabilitation floor at Domino Hospital behind. He'd learned a lot here, more then he could have had he just continued therapy at home over the holiday break, so it was well worth the effort.

Kouryo knew that even if he'd accepted his disability, he didn't want to upset his family by telling them he'd pretty much thrown in the towel on the chance to walk again. It just wasn't important to him anymore as had it once been. He knew his father would be disappointed, as might his mother, but he also knew that the one person in the world he could tell would keep his confidence and not tell a soul. He could trust his brother Raiu with anything.

Even if he still felt like he should have been the one injured instead of Kouryo, it was all way in the past for Raiu. Sadly, Kouryo knew that Raiu sometimes felt guilty about it and still had nightmares about the accident. He could remember when he'd hear Raiu through the wall of their adjoining rooms and it made him sad to know that his brother who had helped him so much as of late harbored such guilt over the past. He tried not to think about it, but it was always there in the deepest corners of his mind.

He could remember it clearly. The bright blue sky about above them as they raced to their friend's house up the road from the Kaiba Mansion. The car had seemed to come out of nowhere and Raiu was right in it's path. There was no time to think and Kouryo had just reacted to save his brother. The pain had hit him as he flew off of the car and fell against the hard unforgiving tarmac, his dueling deck scattering the surrounding area.

Blinking roughly, Kouryo forced the memory away from his thoughts. Suddenly, he was surprised to see the elevator doors open and reveal his father standing there alone. Smiling at him!

Kouryo was shocked but he was ready to go. He had both his bags on his lap and his backpack on his chair, but had his father truly come alone?

Seto Kaiba waved to his son as Kouryo wheeled over to meet him. They had to check him out at the nurse's desk as his doctor had already given him the all clear to be released.

After that was done, Kouryo smiled up at his father as Seto pushed him down the hallway outside to where there was a car he recognized as the family car parked in the handicapped spot outside. It had a special license tag since they used it whenever they needed to go places because it was just easier. It had a rack off the trunk for his chair, so using the sliding board that was there in the backseat for him, Kouryo locked his wheels and made the side transfer into the car.

Seto smiled without saying a word and then handed Kouryo the backpack. So far they hadn't really spoken, but it was not a tense silence between them. Seto put the chair onto the rack and before long they were on their way home. Or so Kouryo thought at first.

Inside the car, he noticed his one of a kind dueling disk was lying on the seat next to him and that they weren't heading in the direction of home. He noticed his deck was in it and he smiled.

"Father? Where are we going?" Kouryo finally asked after it was obvious that there was no way they were heading home.

"It's a surprise, Kouryo. We're all glad you're coming home now. It's been hard on all of us not having you at home. Just relax; it won't be long before we get to where we're going."

"I missed everyone too." Kouryo bowed his head. "It wasn't easy staying away from home, but I suppose it was good practice for when I go to Duel Academia, right, father?" asked Kouryo.

"That's one way to look at it. So, how did you like walking on that thing? Is it something we need to get for you to use at home?" Seto asked.

"It was all right, but I don't think we need to get one of them. The FES system that my therapist uses with me is good enough. I appreciate the braces though, they made it easier, but I don't know if I could ever get good enough to walk again," Kouryo said, before he realized what came out.

Seto sighed, "Well, I was afraid of that, son. I hope you're not too disappointed by it."

Seto looked up at Kouryo in the rearview mirror and tried to smile but Kouryo saw the disappointed expression. He hoped that he could convey that he wasn't as disappointed as people might think. As he was thinking about it, Kouryo shook his head, indicating that he wasn't disappointed by it. He smiled at his father and then realized that they were heading to the new Kaiba Stadium.

_What on Earth could they have planned? _

Kouryo wondered in silence as his father drove around to the parking lot. Soon they were heading inside and the security guard tipped his hat at them as they entered the main gate. Then they were inside and a huge banner was stretched out over the dueling platform that said in bold red letters, "Welcome back Kouryo! We missed you!" It made him feel so loved seeing it there, and as his father handed him his dueling disk to put onto his chair Kouryo looked around at his family.

Kouryo smiled as he took in the group; his mother was standing next to his sister and Mokuba, who had his long hair in a ponytail. They were all smiling back at him and then he looked up at Raiu. He saw that his brother was wearing a duel disk and Raiu gestured at the platform. Could he want to duel? That had to be it! Why else would they have set things up here instead of at home? It had to have been Raiu's idea. He looked up at his brother and smiled.

He clipped on the duel disk and moved to the lift that would raise him up to the dueling platform's level. The new adaptive duel disks based on the model Kouryo had were also helping to bring out new duelists which was a good thing for the gaming community.

Seto had made certain, though, that his son's disk was as unique as Kouryo himself was. As he activated his disk he pulled out his deck and met Raiu halfway in the middle of the platform. They switched decks, each shuffling the other's cards carefully. As Raiu handed Kouryo his deck back and took his own he winked at his younger sibling.

"Welcome home brother. Prepare to duel! And try not to lose too early, hmm?"

Kouryo laughed and nodded as he took his place across from his brother. This definitely wasn't the homecoming he'd expected, and he was very glad they all cared enough to set this up for him. Kouryo Kaiba felt so much love in his cards and knew it didn't matter if he won or lost, he would always be a winner in the eyes of the people around him; his family.


End file.
